The links below will take you directly to the Sage website and show videos demonstrating some of the new features in Sage 50 2010, they are presented by Sage’s own technical staff.

Sage Pay Integration

Generate Barcodes within Products

Importing Data into Sage 50 2010

The new 2010 version of Sage Act is due for release this September, here is an update of the new features:

Updated User Interface – better navigation with new “easy-click” buttons for common and related tasks. The new welcome page has tools, tips help and news.

Customise Opportunities – The new detailed view of opportunities will allow users to add new fields, customise products and services, change the layouts and track history and activities.

New Reports – 13 new standard reports are included, so you can view the information you need even more easily.

Social Media Integration- Act 2010 can link to social networking sites like LinkedIn and Facebook, to find more information about the contacts in your database.

E-Marketing- An integrated e-marketing tool is now included to help you run successful online marketing campaigns directly from your CRM software.

Ledger Services will be offering online training sessions for all our existing customers to cover the new functionality available in Sage 50 Construction 2010.

Because the new release has significant updates to the sales module, we will be offering scheduled online training sessions for all our existing customers. As yet we do not know how  long these are likely to be, as we have not seen the new release ourselves yet, although we expect 1 or 2 1 hour sessions would be adequate for those using the sales module already and in a fairly standard way.  The updates will affect creation of valuations, applications certificates and invoices, however the process will be simplified, so the training should not take too long.   As soon as we know more about the release date and have had a chance to have a look for ourselves we will both update these news pages and email all existing Construct users, with dates and  information on how to access the training sessions.

In the new version of Sage 50 and 200 Construction, due for release in October this year, the sales module has been completely revamped and simplified.

In previous versions of Sage 50 and 200 Construction a customer would need to enter a valuation against a contract for the value, quantity or percentage of work complete, then when generating an application for payment, certificate or invoice, this valuation would be selected and applied to that particular document.

The new client billing module has been designed to make the whole process even simpler, without losing any of the functionality or detail available.  Now all documentation is available through a single screen, so there is no longer a need to create separate valuations and sales documents. Users can also use multiple nominal and VAT codes.

For the remainder of August and through September we are offering Sage 50 training courses for £120 for a one day course and £230 for a two day course.  Most Sage 50 courses usually retail at £265 per day!  They are the official Sage courses, run at Sages training centres around the UK, however because we have block purchased a number of days we are able to offer these fantastic discounts. You do not need to attend the course in August or September, just have booked it during these months.

There are training centres in: Manchester, London, Leeds, Bristol Glasgow Birmingham, Newcastle, Croydon and Reading Winnersh.

The courses are not just on Sage 50 Accounts and Payroll, but cover other products such as Act, Forecasting and Job Costing. There are also specific courses for integrating MS Office into your accounts and Excel reporting.  For more information please either call us on 0845 2576905 or visit our shop for course booking and dates

Sage will be withdrawing support for Microsoft SQL Server 2000 with the release of Sage 200 2010. Microsoft withdrew mainstream support for Microsoft SQL Server 2000 in early 2008 and are due to withdraw ‘Extended Support’ in 2013.

In addition, Microsoft released SQL Server 2008 in April 2008. Sage 200’s development policy is to only support the current and prior release of this database platform with it’s software applications therefore from the 2010 release we will support Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and 2008 only.

We recommend customers use Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Standard as this is required for those customers utilising BI, and it is the latest version

The new release of Sage 50 Construction and Sage 200 Construction is due in October.  This is the first of 3 short articles to cover the new functionality available.

The main development has gone into the client billing module, although this has always been present since Sage Construct Advanced was developed around 15 years ago, it has now had a complete overhaul, it’s easier to use, simplifies the production of all sales documents, makes the software more flexible, has improved accounts integration and includes some new features including:

• VAT on Applications for Payment
• Cumulative Billing with multiple Nominal, VAT & Stock codes
• Cumulative  and Non Cumulative billing to multiple to multiple client accounts on one contract
• Multiple numbering sequences for sales documents
• New stop functions
• Improved integration
• New Improved user interface
• Simplified navigation
• Simplified data entry

The focus has been on improving the user experience, simplifying processes and adding flexibility (to a product which was to be fair, pretty flexible to start with!)

Since Sage bought Tekton a couple of years ago, apart from a bit of re-branding the business appears to have been left to run pretty much autonomously.  Their product range covers everything which Sage Construct does, but is targeted at much larger companies, it also has specific features for companies who develop a lot of houses and oilfields.

Rumor has it that their Estimating Module, which is comparable to the likes of Crest, Causeway and Conquest may be integrated with Sage Construct in the not too distant future.  Construct alredy has it’s own Estimating module, however it’s fairly simple, so we hope this will provide an offering for companies who need a high end estimating solution but are still in the £1M – £30M turnover bracket, which is the size of our typical construction customers.

This will offer a solution for companies who have (or want to implement) Sage 50 Accounts or Sage 200, with Sage Construct for Job Costing, Retention tracking, Valuations, Applications etc, but need have complex requirements for initial Estimates.

Peel Environmental has been given the go-ahead for a new power station near Chester, entirely fueled by household rubbish.

A new rail network will link the 95 megawatt electricity generator and recycling facilities around the 100 Ha site.  Household waste will be considered a resource as opposed to a costly problem, with the electricity generated being used to fuel the site with the remainder being fed back into the national grid. The new site is estimated to prevent 600,000 tonnes of waste going into landfill each year.  The unused land around the site will also be utilised as a wildlife reserve, offering enhanced habitat for wild birds.

Do you have to sign up to Sage Pay to use PayPal as part of the “Pay Now” button on electronic documentation?

Yes – in order for Sage Payment Download to capture all the information it needs about invoice numbers and customer details you need to use SagePay.

How do you deal with expenses that are paid directly from the till account?

Enter them via bank payments – they will then appear on the cash transfers list where you can transfer money from the notional till account to the bank. You tick them in the same way you do a receipt and the value is deducted from the transfer 

Can you issue part Sales Payments (refunds to customers)

Yes – just like sales receipts and purchase payments you don’t have to refund the whole of a customer’s or supplier’s invoice using the customer refund or supplier payment option.

Will the “last run date and time” from the Report Explorer screen be present in a restored backup?

Yes – the date stamps on this screen are saved as part of a backup and restored.

Can you un-pause the year-end messaging screen if you have accidentally paused it.

Yes – this is done with a tickbox in Company Preferences

Will zero value invoices be posted to the sales ledger?

No – this is still on the wish-list. If this is an issue that affects and/or you clients then please log it on the wish-list with Sage